By David Eberhart
Stars and Stripes Veterans Affairs
Editor
Phil Cushman of Veterans Due
Process:

“Two attorneys that worked for the
Board of Veterans Appeals drew prison
time for separately committing fraud in
1994 and 1995. They destroyed records
that were sent to them for review, rejecting
the veterans ’ cases on the grounds that the
records were missing. The attorneys said
on the record that they believed the quick
denials would make them appear more
productive and eligible for “bigger
bonuses.”

“The Senior Executive Service Act,
which appears as Title 5 U.S. Code,
Section 3131, provides for substantial cash
awards ($30,000 per year, more or less) to
federal managers (to include VA
managers) who demonstrate to the
government that they are ‘responsive to the
policies and goals of the Nation.’

”The lure of cash bonuses tied
directly to the twin ‘goals’ of production
and cost-efficiency can be tragic for
America ’s injured defenders. Yet the VA
system has enjoyed insulation from
meaningful outside scrutiny into its system
ever since Congress enacted the 1933
‘Economy Act’, which effectively closed
America ’s U.S. district courts to veterans .
These same veterans had already been
denied the freedom to spend their dollars to
hire attorneys to protect their legal rights
concerning VA claims.

”While some would argue that it
would be difficult to guess the true extent
to which the bonus-driven VA has resulted
in contempt for the law, there are powerful
indicators. Not the least of these are the
repeated declarations by Chief Judge
Nebeker of the Court of Appeals for
Veterans Claims. Nebeker knows from
experience that the VA holds itself to be
above the law. No one at the VA wants the
goose that is laying the golden eggs to be
examined too closely.

“Lord Acton adequately described
this bonus and VA-above-the-law reality in
his maxim, ‘All power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

The VA slipped its constitutional
chains during 1933, and has never been
harnessed to the law since. America’s
injured war defenders, who defend the rule
of law with their lives, blood and limb,
should not themselves be denied
fundamental due process. Article 3 [ U.S.
Consitution] U.S. district courts must
finally subject the VA to real and
meaningful judicial review.
“These courts, so empowered, could
utilize their fine and imprisonment powers
to force the VA to obey the law, placing it
above the bonus-driven mentality of today.
In the age of primary focus on personal
financial prosperity in which we live, the
law simply cannot compete.